“Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” The first reading from Ecclesiastes warns the pursuit of things consumes the fool. Lost in the consumption is our soul. Jesus tells a parable of a soul so very foolishly consumed, “A rich man, whose land produced a bountiful harvest” ponders, ‘What shall I do?’ ‘I shall build larger barns.’” With “so many good things stored up for years, (I shall) eat, drink, be merry.” “But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’”
Ahh, the things that consume us and the cost to us to be so consumed. The cost is not only money but loved ones and our very selves; character as well as soul. The concern is that people being foolishly consumed by lesser things is getting worse. It is the concern of Stuart Ewen who has been writing about the problem of consumerism since 1971 in his ground breaking book Captains of Consciousness. Ewen is a Professor of Film & Media Studies and like Ecclesiastes and Jesus he is concerned the consumption of our soul. Ewan does so in his context – Americans consumed by advertisers. He speaks of business having colonized the American identity. It is done in much the same way business colonized any indigenous people; reconnaissance, invasion, occupation, assimilation. If it sounds like a military operation its because that is how it all began. The reconnaissance began with Wall Street millionaires crafting WWI for greater plunder (e.g. J.P. Morgan). They bought men for their advertising ranks to coerce the men they wanted to buy for their military ranks . The admen formed the brand new ‘Public Relations’ (PR) division of capitalism. They reconnoitered that branding U.S. dissenters from WWI plunder as cowards could increase the likelihood of war and plunder. The war-plunderers and their ad men then invaded the American mind so that compliant minds and then compliant bodies would invade the European continent. PR’s invasion to gain compliance used two weapons – propaganda and censorship; bias favoring the war-plunderers was matched with bias silencing dissenters. Many citizens consumed the bullet points and went to war. The transition from invasion to occupation – of the American mind – happened after WWI ended. The war plunderers, or Captains of Consciousness, turned their two weapons of propaganda and censorship on the American people, full force. Propaganda meant that beyond the selling of business products, Captains of Consciousness sold an image, a lifestyle, so too, certain values while they censored other values. For example, their propaganda occupied the American mind with the value of capitalism while censorship meant only capitalism was sold – as savior. It saves us from bad breath, bad fashion, even bad values – bad for capitalism – values like simplicity, healthy living, the integrity of nature, and world peace. Each value was censored. Each still is. Occupying the American mind with ‘things’ these Captains manipulated and seduced people, even children, into their cult of consumerism. They told us, ‘You are what you buy.’ Their occupation transitioned into assimilation when the plunderers started to identify human beings as ‘consumers’ and compliant human beings consumed the identity. In consuming it, the Captains of Consciousness were being more successful with their deviousness than we might realize. They were, in truth, turning human beings into objects for the capitalists’ consumption. The Captains were and still are labeling or branding people for their own ingestion and expulsion as just so much waste. It is not just that we are consumers, it is that we are consumed. Humans are objects to be consumed for the Captain’s products, for their wars, for their plunder. We needn’t wonder about the effects of their social manipulation of turning people into things for their greed. It is the basis of a culture that treats people as disposable while it grants personhood to corporations, that eliminates jobs and unions while it heralds the stock market, that maintains an unlivable wage while it grants tax cuts to the 1%, that supports slave troops while it greedily gains from unending war. Capitalism’s Captains have no concern for Jesus’ wisdom from today’s Gospel, “Take care to guard against all greed.” People who are not so consumed are still in touch with our soul and still in communion with simplicity, healthy living, the integrity of nature, and world peace.
“I CELEBRATE myself; … For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my Soul; I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass. … I and this mystery, here we stand. Clear and sweet is my Soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my Soul. … Loafe with me on the grass—loose the stop from your throat; Not words, not music or rhyme I want—not custom or lecture, not even the best;… Dazzling and tremendous, how quick the sun-rise would kill me, If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me. We also ascend, dazzling and tremendous as the sun; We found our own, O my Soul.” (Song of Myself – Walt Whitman)
Prayer: Spirit, raise our soul consciousness
Question: How do I starve consumerism and feed my soul?
August 04, 2019 Gospel Luke 12:13-21 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time